New research shows that surgery to remove adipose tissue results in an overall improvement in quality of life. Bariatric surgery is an increasingly common, yet controversial approach to help the obese.
Critics claim the procedure is merely a cosmetic approach that ignores the root cause of the condition.
However, as the procedure has become more commonplace — about 220,000 people underwent bariatric surgery in 2009 in the United States, up from about 13,300 procedures in 1998 — experts are learning that the procedure has multiple benefits.